A Child of Pan
by Rap541
Summary: This is my attempt at humor and crackfic. Basically, what if Season 4.5 had gone a little differently... because of how supernatural some people actually are? Welcome To Battlestar Gothica!
1. Chapter 1

It was, Louis thought sadly, just like Dee to plan ahead. Felix was the sort of man who rarely did anything special for himself. He was content to do favors for friends, and hesitant to accept favors in kind. Dee had known that, Louis had no doubt, and had made sure that her planned gift for Felix's birthday would still happen, despite her own, awful plans. She hadn't left a note, but it took one look inside the box to understand. Sugar packets from when the mess hall still had them, candies, packets of flavored sugar drinks from the ration packs, peanut butter and peanuts from the same ration packs. Felix had a sweet tooth. Louis knew that almost as well as Dee. He had actually worried at one point, about Felix's attraction to sugar because it seemed unhealthy. There had been times that he had almost gone to Cottle.

With Felix's injury, he had to assume that Cottle had run some tests. There were bigger problems now than a weird tendency to gobble sugar. He had planned something similar anyway, but he knew that Felix would be touched by Dee's gift. Touched and depressed, and that was why Louis planned to present Dee's gift well after his own. He had gotten a box of powdered hot chocolate. With some thermal tabs and a canteen of water, he and Felix could have something warm and sweet right in their bunk.

Since the gods knew Felix was still recoiling in horror at the idea of having sex. Louis wasn't pushing him, it was just a week after the amputation, and truth be told, he wasn't exactly in the mood for a hot frak, with everything that was going on, but the last thing he wanted was for Felix to think he was somehow turned off or grossed out by Felix's body. It wasn't pretty, but *that* wasn't why he was in love with Felix.

Felix was depressed though, about his disability, the pain, Dee's suicide that he blamed himself for, and the ruin of Earth. Deep down, Louis rather doubted that he was going to magically cheer Felix up with hot chocolate and peppermint candy and erase the crushing blows of the last week, but he figured at least Felix would know that someone gave a damn about him.

"Where is Felix," he asked when he entered the bunk room, holding his gaily wrapped gift. He tried not to look at the blood stains on the floor.

"He left," Seelix said casually from her bunk. "He said he needed to get away. He didn't look so good….He was going on about being off schedule…"

"Well, why didn't…" Louis stopped. No one went after Felix because no one cared. Everyone had their own problems to worry about. Humanity sometimes made him very sad, and very angry, but he forced that away. "Did he say where he was going?"

"Yeah," said one of the petty officers. "Down to storage level F. Something about needing something there…" The petty officer shrugged. "He left about a half hour ago…"

Louis felt his worry increase. Storage level F was essentially abandoned on the Galactica. It was where tyliem was stored, level B through G and at last check, the fuel lockers that were being emptied were on Level E. Level F was just empty fuel tanks and the smell of the fuel made it impossible to use for anything else. Even the most desperate for privacy didn't go there.

It was Felix's birthday and he was going to the most unpleasant part of the ship and Louis began to jog down the corridor. Something Felix had said started to ring in his ears, how *angry* he was with Dee. Not for killing herself, but for making her friends see the aftermath. He had vowed and promised Louis that he'd never do that. But dragging himself off to the cleared storage levels to die alone and unfound like some wounded animal seeking a hole to die in….That thought made Louis pick up the pace.

As he clamored down the stairwell into the main corridor of Storage Level F, he sighed in relief as he spotted Felix's limping form walking with his crutches. "Felix, dammit, what are you doing?" he said as he came up on the man.

Felix turned and looked at him, and Louis felt his worry increase tenfold. Felix looked sick. His skin was pale and dotted with sweat and the black circles under his eyes. He was gritting his teeth like he was biting back pain and his eyes… seemed off. "Oh gods, Louis, go away. Leave me alone."

"Felix, I know what you're planning and I won't let you do it." He held out the gift and took a step closer. "It's your birthday… I can't lose you on your birthday."

Felix's eyes widened. Suddenly, he punched the wall with such violence that Louis could see a dent in the metal wall. "Dammit Louis!" Felix said, sounding desperate and breathless. "I'm not here to kill myself… I…" He looked away, and then down at his foot. "I know this will sound crazy, but… I'm a child of Pan."

Louis couldn't help it, he laughed. "Felix, that's a story, just a story people tell children." He'd heard the stories himself, so long ago. "Did Dr. Cottle give you something? Something for the pain?"

"Do you know," Felix hissed, " what Gaeta means in Old Aqualon? It means Wolf Walker." And he seemed to cringe and hug himself as though pain was coursing through his body. Louis dropped the box and rushed to his side. Felix jerked away but Louis held him.

"It's going to be fine, you're going to be fine," he crooned, uncomfortably aware of how things seemed to *moving* under Felix's skin. Children of Pan, the shape shifters who turned into animals and hunted those who went against the gods… everything Louis Hoshi knew about science and technology told him it was impossible. But the sensation of Felix's muscle and bone moving told him otherwise. "Ok," he said softly, pretending not to notice how Felix seemed suddenly taller and how his teeth looked more pointy than they should, "why are you here?"

Felix tapped the door of the closest hatch. "The change… I can control it except once a month… the moon frenzy…." He opened the door and limped in. Louis followed, noting that the room was empty except for a storage ledge and some heavy chains and cuffs. Felix shrugged off his hands and began taking off his clothes. "Listen," he said quietly, "this… isn't how I planned to tell you but I did plan to tell you. Take my crutches, my clothes, and the leg…" Louis took the clothes, and watched in nervous awe as Felix hopped to the ledge, naked, and clicked on a leg shackle to his good leg. Louis could see, by the deep scratches on the wall, that the storage room wasn't just a one time hiding hole for Felix. Felix locked the shackle with a combination lock and looked at him, his expression devastated. "Go. I can't hold it back much longer. Close the door, and don't open it until you hear me, in my normal voice, asking you to." He winced and shuddered in pain. Louis almost stepped forward and Felix held up a hand to stop him. "Don't! Go outside. Call if you're worried. He knows. But go, and don't open the door until I say." He choked. "I love you, Louis."

"I'll be right out here," Louis promised. "I love you too. I'll be here." He closed the hatch door, and winced at the unearthly howling that suddenly sounded through the metal walls. Oh Felix, he thought sadly. He had known there was something that Felix was holding back from him, that Felix held back from everyone, but he had never expected this. He had seen it in the man's eyes that Felix didn't expect him to wait, or to keep the secret. The Children of Pan were the legendary bogeymen of all of the colonies, the shape shifters who only came out when the moon was full and took the lives of the unbelievers as Pan's due right.

"I'll stay," he promised. He owed Felix that.

~*~


	2. Chapter 2

It was an hour and a half before Cottle appeared in the passage, holding a flashlight in one hand and a medical bag and supplies in the other. Louis stood up, realizing how cold and stiff he felt. The howls of pain and thumping sounds had stopped for almost ten minutes but he hadn't opened the door. He had heard something that had sounded like words at the height of whatever Felix was going through, but nothing that sounded like a call for help. Or a request to open the door. "Dr. Cottle!"

The older man shined the flashlight in his face. "Hoshi…" Cottle sighed. "Why are you still here?"

"Felix is my friend." He said firmly. "I'm with him. He told me that he was… a child of Pan. And that you knew, and I should call you." That wasn't exactly true, but he doubted that Cottle would figure it out.

Cottle eyed him. "I knew you two were… together. What else did he tell you?"

"Not much," Louis admitted. "I know the stories…"

Cottle set down his bag and waved his hand dismissively. "Most of the stories are nonsense." He looked over Louis like he was eyeing a fake cubit. "Are you going to stay? I can talk to him if you don't want to." What scared Louis was the casual way in Cottle said it. Like he had said it before, and knew from experience that he would be left with the task of explaining.

"I told him that I would wait for him." He said it firmly.

The doctor sniffed. "When did the noise stop?" He gestured to the hatch door.

"Maybe ten minutes ago," Louis answered.

"He's off schedule," Cottle said. "So we're going to wait a few more minutes. I don't plan on losing an arm because he's not finished with his little rabies episode." He lit a cigarette, and after a moment held one out. Louis took it gratefully. The older man began to speak after a long moment. "When we go in, don't say a word until I tell you to and if you can't be supportive, just walk away now. He's going to be out of it until I get him to eat something…"

"What do you mean, off schedule?" Felix had been saying something about that, according to Seelix, and it sounded important.

Cottle sighed again. "Children of Pan don't have a choice about the change. This room," and he tapped the hatch door, "has been here, for this reason, since this ship was built. It's usually the ship chaplain they go to but I know Gaeta's family name. From Aquaria. The ones in the fleet have always been rare… They like the wild. They need to be wild. They have to be wild. Felix was stuck on the Demetrious…. There are ways, with drugs, to put off the change, and he was using them and it makes this worse. He didn't bite or scratch you did he?"

"No…is that true though?" He had heard that particular tale before, that a bite from a shape shifter turned the victim into a shifter.

"It is. But only when he's transitioned. When he's walking around in the CIC, or in the mess hall, you're fine. And it's bite transmission only, and if rumors are true, if you could catch by frakking, you'd already have needed this room yourself." Cottle sounded almost amused. Then he shrugged. "I think the pain medication screwed things up. I was hoping to not have this happen until he was a little more stable."

"Stable?"

"I cut off his leg eight days ago. Guess what? That freaks people out, even people who aren't werewolves," Cottle said. He seemed to finally see the shock Louis felt. "He'll be all right. I only came because you called, and because I know he's been on a physical roller coaster lately. He doesn't normally need my help." The older man gestured to the door. "You understand that you can't tell people about this?"

Louis nodded. "Do you think anyone would believe me?"

"Not at first, no." Cottle allowed. "But there's a whole lot of people who are grasping to any sort of bizarre religious belief just to hold on. And this room exists for a reason. If Lt. Gaeta is locked in the brig long enough while everyone has a fit….He'll have a fit."

Again, Louis nodded. It sounded so stupid and unbelievable, but he knew the gist of the stories, and both Felix and Cottle had confirmed one tale. "This change isn't voluntary."

"Once a month, for maybe ten minutes normally, and as I understand it, there's plenty of warning. Easier than a woman's period, as long as you have a place in the country, or a room like this." Cottle shrugged. "I don't pretend to be an expert. It runs in families. The research, what there was, was done by the temples. You can imagine why." He laughed, a low chuckle. "It's a manageable genetic illness, not the worst roll of the dice I've seen all things considered. They live longer, stay healthier…"

"But it can be passed in bites?" Louis asked. He had a feeling Cottle was holding back.

"That's different." Cottle held up a hand. "Don't ask me how, I don't know."

" If this is normal," Louis began.

"It's not normal," Cottle retorted. "It's abnormal, because Gaeta was on the Demetrious, which doesn't have a place like this and he held off the change with drugs. Which makes it worse, and last longer when it does come. Instead of having the equivalent of a petite mal seizure, he's had a grand mal fit… and frankly he hasn't been too well health wise recently. I was worried, and he can't afford being discovered." He shrugged. "I haven't heard anything. I'm going to open the door."

"He said not to. Not unless I heard him ask in his normal voice." Louis said it worriedly as Cottle set down his bag. The doctor handed him a light blanket.

"He might not be conscious," Cottle said. "If he is, it will be just barely. It takes a huge amount of energy and…" He gestured to the neat pile of Felix's clothes and then went through the pockets, pulling out three candy drops. "He left his fix with you. He'll probably need more than that, which is why I brought this." Cottle took a tube of glucose gel out of his bag, the sort of thing Louis remembered diabetics carrying. Then he took out a gun. At Louis's expression, he smiled wryly. "What, you think the power of love will keep him off us if he's still acting crazy?"

"No… I…" Louis couldn't help it, he laughed. "Aren't the bullets supposed to be silver?"

Cottle glared at him. "Well, hopefully we don't have to test that, Mr. Hoshi." He undid the hatch and opened the door just a crack. "Lt. Gaeta? It's Dr. Cottle… Your friend Louis called me… Are you feeling all right?"

Louis heard nothing at first, and then a low, stifled sob. Oh gods, he thought, and he tried to push past Cottle, but the older man shoved him back. "You need to get it under control," Cottle hissed. "Don't overreact. Do you love him?" He waited until Louis nodded. "Then remember that he's been through the wringer, and *this* is probably not how he wanted you to break this to you."

He let go of Cottle. The doctor was right. "Ok". He followed Cottle in. Felix was on the floor, curled up in a ball, hugging his knees to his chest. And…

"Don't say it," Cottle whispered, taking the blanket from him and quickly covering the shaking man. "Felix… I know you're upset and frightened, but we're here to help…" He checked Felix's eyes. Louis could see that Felix was pretty out of it. His eyes were open but he wasn't registered anything, until Cottle got the tube of glucose into his mouth. He jerked back and tried to move away but Louis quickly took a hold of him.

"We're trying to help you, Felix," he said gently.

"Don't spit it out," Cottle barked, his tone growing more firm once it was clear that Felix was coming around. "I know it tastes bad, but I bet you feel better already."

Felix nodded, and Louis made sure to smile and hold him. "You're going to be fine, Felix."

"Oh godsdammit Louis, don't lie," Felix said, his voice shaking. "I can't… hide this…"

"No, probably not," Cottle said, moving the blanket aside to look at Felix's two legs, and two feet. "Wiggle your toes for me." Felix did, and then lowered his head into his arms. Cottle ignored that, although he shot Louis a warning glance. "Felix, you know I try not to ask a lot of questions… Did you know this was going to happen?"

"No… It…" Felix seemed to shake even more. "Regeneration… It's not… one of my family's gifts…. There's some stories but…. My grandfather said his grandmother… regrew a tail… We didn't believe him…"

Cottle chuckled. "So it is in the family, just rare. All right… I need to think how we're going to present this, because we can't hide it, Felix. Louis, I need to talk to you, outside."

Louis followed him out into the hallway. "You can't tell the admiral," he said quietly, not wanting Felix to hear. "You know what will happen. Just… I can get him on a transport to one of the other ships."

Cottle shook his head. "There's no other way. People know who Felix Gaeta is. If you got him to another ship, people still know who he is and what happened on the Demetrious. And the other ships may not be able to handle his little medical problem." He hesitated. "I'll think of something. Bill may still be drunk enough to not flip out. Make sure he eats all the glucose, get him dressed, and bring him down to sickbay. Make him use the crutches, and just… roll his pantleg down. But before you do that," Cottle reached down into his medical bag and tossed him a plastic iv bag of blood. "I'd tell you to look in a mirror but we both know that's a waste of time. Your lover hasn't noticed that you're able to see in the dark and your teeth are as pointy as his because his blood sugar has bottomed out. I don't have to tell you, you'll need to tell him. But here's a little word of warning…. No matter how much you love him, and no matter how much he loves you, find yourself another source for your drinks. You've been around long enough, you know the stories. It may just be rumor…. But I don't think you want to find out."

"I was going to tell him…I was going to ask first… We don't kill the ones we love," Louis said in protest, although he couldn't lie that he hadn't thought about. Just taking a drink while Felix slept deeply. And the stories of the werefolk… He'd always thought they were a myth but…

"You need to tell him," Cottle warned. "but that's not my problem. Take your drink before you go back in unless you want to make this situation ten times worse." More gently he added, "Don't look so worried. Your secret is safe with me until you blow off a limb and regrow it like a certain werewolf we both know."

"We don't do that," Louis said. "The limb thing."

"That's my point." Cottle walked off down the corridor. Louis took a deep breath, and then bit into the bag of blood. Cottle was right… Felix needed to know, but it could wait. Felix needed him to be strong, the admiral wasn't likely to be as open minded as Cottle. Then again, he didn't know anyone in the fleet who would be as open minded as Jack Cottle.

What he could be sure of was that Cottle was a man of his word. No one had even suspected that he was a vampire… and Cottle had never once hinted that the fleet held werewolves. That meant he could tell Felix in his own time.

If the Admiral didn't kill him, and he'd have the man's blood if it came to that.

~*~

Bill looked at Cottle. Then he crossed his arms. "Lt. Gaeta is a werewolf?"

"Yes." Cottle crossed his arms as well. "The scriptures refer to the illness as being a Child of Pan."

Bill considered that for a long moment. Jack could have an odd sense of humor sometimes. " Is that your way of breaking it to me that he went crazy and just gunned down a bunch of people in the landing bay?"Because he wouldn't put it past Gaeta, or anyone else on the crew. The last few days had been rough.

"No","Cottle said, smiling slightly. " I meant werewolf in the going all furry, howling at the moon sense."Bill sighed. "That's what I thought you meant. You know Jack, we've all been under a lot of stress..."

Cottle waved his hand dismissively. "We all have stress. That's why you're popping stim with ambrosia, and why the president is refusing medical treatment, and why every other idiot on this ship is having a nervous breakdown. But Lt. Gaeta is a werewolf and you need to deal with it."

Bill looked at him again. "Jack, there's no such thing as werewolves."

"There is," Cottle said, his tone growing more firm. "And you need to make a decision how you're going to deal with it, because he's a member of your crew and he's got a major problem.""What, did he eat someone?" Bill took a deep drink. "Hopefully they were already dead.""No.... he didn't eat anyone..."

But Bill could see in the doctor's eyes that the problem was serious. He sighed again.

~*~

"I'm so sorry," Felix said again as he leaned on Louis. He was glad in a way, that he felt so unsteady and sick. It made the walking look more realistic. "You don't... have to stay, Louis. It will be better for you if you say you didn't know."

"No," Louis said firmly. "I care about you, and that means standing by you." He put his arm around Felix. "You can't help this, right? Dr. Cottle said you were born like this, and its not your fault, and you make sure that you control yourself so people don't get hurt. The Admiral has no reason to be upset over this, and you have nothing to apologize for."

"Louis..." He stopped in the corridor and made sure no one could hear him. "I'm a werewolf. This isn't forgetting to have a pen during a briefing. My leg regenerated. At the very least, he's going to think I'm the final Cylon." Or worse. Louis was covering it well, but he had obviously heard a story or two about the Children of Pan.

"You haven't done anything wrong," Louis repeated. "You didn't expect your leg to be better, after... the moon frenzy, did you?" Louis's eyes were filled with concern, and it almost made Felix melt.

"No," he admitted as they started walking again. He wasn't ready to talk about it yet, and of all things, he was supremely conscious of how stiffly he had to walk in order to fool the people in the corridor. It wasn't going to be ok, that he was sure of. Even assuming the Admiral didn't completely break down, or just go crazy and try to kill him, that meant very little really. People had gotten religious, and even though Earth was frakked, Earth was *real* and telling them that the Children of Pan walked the fleet would hardly help. He felt his nervousness increase as they approached the Admiral's quarters. "Louis, there's a good chance Admiral Adama is going to kill me. If that happens... I do love you... I wish I had told you sooner."

Louis stopped walking, and pulled him into a hug. "You listen to me," Louis whispered. "I have your back in there. I have a gun, and we can hold them off. You can fly, and we can take a Raptor. We could go back to New Caprica... It wouldn't work for the fleet but for a few people..."

"Louis that's crazy..." His voice trailed off. It really wasn't. New Caprica wasn't exactly paradise but there had been supplies, even ships left behind. The Cylons seemed to have abandoned it, and truth be told, Louis was right. It would work for a few people. His sort of people in particular. He kissed Louis. "Ok, but that's just a back up. I don't think Cottle would call me up here if he thought the Admiral wouldn't listen."

Admiral was drinking ambrosia from a glass, when they entered. He frowned darkly at the two men but didn't try to order Louis out, which Felix hoped was a good sign. "Well?" The Admiral said. "Come on, let's see the show."

"The show?" Felix gulped nervously. He handed his crutches to Louis and bent down to undo his shoes. He had a feeling where Adama was going. He made a point of rolling up his pants legs as well as removing his boots. Adama was going to want to see the change in order to believe it, that much was clear.

He had extra uniforms, but boots were hard to come by.

Adama looked at his bare feet, his expression unchanged. "Explain this, Mr. Gaeta."

"I'm a Child of Pan, a shape shifter." He tried to keep his voice even. Admiral Adama had that edgy, angry look, but he pressed on. "We can… shape shift between the human form and the wolf form in my family. There's different types, and different families have different gifts. Some of us can shift and injuries committed to the human are healed….I didn't think it would happen to me…" It was the hand of the gods touching their children, or so his grandfather had told him. Scars were marks of honor, but the gods healed those that they favored or that had been wronged in their eyes. He wasn't sure that the admiral wanted the Pan's Children version of the scripture though. It was easier to rely on the scientific angle that Cottle preferred. "Some families have blue eyes, even in the wolf form, and some… regenerate limbs."

"Of course," Adama said. He took another drink. "For the moment, let's assume I don't think you're some sort of secret Cylon, and all this frakking nonsense is true. It's not your bare feet I want to see."

Felix nodded. He quickly took off his dog tags and uniform shirts.

"I gave you an order, Mr. Gaeta." The Admiral glared at him. Felix knew that tone. To hell with saving my pants, he thought. If the admiral needs a show to believe, then he was going to get one.

Felix let the change come. It was different than during the frenzy. That was an animal need, craving to be one with the wild. Most of his adult life, the moon frenzy had been spent locked in the Galactica's hold. The lupus change was more difficult but shifting to the lykos form, the wolf-man of the storybooks, was what the Admiral wanted to see and he did it, relishing the sensation. In seconds, he was done. The family had the gift of the quick change, it only hurt during the frenzy, and while he knew the admiral had no expectations beyond books and movies, his lykos form was impressive. It was lucky that the ceiling in Adama's quarters was high. Considering how much of his time was spent in human form, Felix had always been annoyed that he was at best average sized as a human male, and at nine foot, bigger than almost every other shifter in the lykos form. His fur was mostly black, and he was careful to not flex his claws or sniff, even though the heightened sensations and scents were intoxicating.

"Well, sir?" he asked, secretly enjoying the deep rumble of his new form. It pleased him oddly, that Louis was looking at him with something like awe. _You're so handsome like this,_ Louis mouthed, and he couldn't help but grin toothily.

And wag his newly generated tail.

Adama looked up at him and then at Cottle. "I think Earth is frakked. We've got no where to go… and Lt. Gaeta is a werewolf. Frankly, I think we're gonna need more booze and pills."

~*~


	3. Chapter 3

The problem with the rotgut ambrosia, Bill Adama thought as he looked at his now furry tactical officer, was that it was rarely strong enough to really blot out the unpleasantness. And, bizarre or not, Lt. Gaeta had a legitimate problem that needed his attention. "I suppose you wouldn't like the obvious solution, that Cottle re-amputates your leg and we all pretend this conversation didn't take place?"

Gaeta's expression seemed to snarl. "That would hurt… sir."

"It's also unethical, medically speaking," Cottle said, his face taking on a firm look. "I'm not cutting off a perfectly healthy limb just to maintain appearances."

Adama nodded. There were things a military commander could ask of his people, and asking one of his officers to submit to crippling torture merely because the truth was going to be painfully awkward was asking for mutiny. Either he presented it to the fleet, or he killed Gaeta, and probably Hoshi as well, and swore Cottle to silence.

He couldn't afford to kill either Gaeta or Hoshi. Gaeta was the best tactical officer they had, and it had been painful not having him around while he had been on the Demetrious. Hoshi was the next best, and the third line replacement wasn't in any way capable to run the show. He wasn't fool enough to think Cottle would keep his mouth shut either

"Are there more?" He could tell by Cottle's face that there were, even if the question hadn't provoked a low growl from Gaeta. Which had to be dealt with. He glared up at Gaeta's furry face. "You damn well better not be frakking growling at me, Lieutenant. In case you missed it, I'm trying to figure out how to not have you be frakking killed by the crew so you better watch your tone."

That elicited a whine, ears flattening back, and Gaeta lowered his head. "Some reactions in this form are less controllable, sir," he said, in a rumbly deep bass voice that was Gaeta but somehow deeper, more malevolent and yet also agreeable.

Adama nodded. "Are there more?" Because if there were, then he and the President, needed to be aware of them, and get them on the Galactica. If just to keep them from harming others.

Gaeta dropped to a crouch, a position where he was still the tallest thing in the room, and looked at Cottle. The doctor eyed him and then nodded. "There's twelve." Cottle said. "Three males, nine females… and possibly eight children. They are all on board the

Galactica, and the adults are all loyal members of the crew who have been nothing but loyal."

Which confirmed that Cottle wouldn't allow violence to solve the problem, Bill realized. Children were involved and military doctors were doctors first. That they were all on the Galactica was a blessing in many respects… At the very least it made the argument he wanted to make, that they were loyal members of the crew, easier. "I don't want names, not yet," he said. Names would be important later, when there was a place for everyone to live. Until they had a safe planet to live on, the… werewolves in the fleet were in a much worse situation than everyone else. If the legends were true. "Answer me honestly, Lt Gaeta. Have any of your… people, harmed members of the fleet?"

He knew the legends of the Children of Pan. They were real, he couldn't disregard the facts before his face, but he had heard the stories as a child. He wasn't being unfair.

"No…" Gaeta growled in bass. "Humans… and wolves… are the herd. Untouchable, except in desperate times. We are the shepherds of the flock. Killing a human is forbidden. It only happens in the moon frenzy, or in desperation. I haven't done it, and no one in the fleet has done it." The wolfman paused. "No one has been harmed by a werewolf. Despite the stories, we don't eat people. Generally. I've never done it. It's reserved as a fate for people who….commit evil. Child molesters and killers. Murderers….Evildoers…"

Lt. Gaeta was less articulate in wolfman form, Adama noted. On the plus side, he confirmed what Adama had suspected, that the rare minority had not been indulging in bestial needs.

That made it easier to consider saving them.

It was at that moment that he heard a knock on the door. The special knock, that only he knew. Before he could even say a word, Gaeta leapt to the door in a single bound, almost crawling up the wall beside the hatch door. He sniffed deeply. "It's the President, sir."

Adama sighed again. "Well don't just sniff at the damn door."

~*~

He understood. The President wasn't going to just walk away. Change, he told himself. And don't be naked. Because he was already in the lykos form, and there wasn't even a towel lying around so he did the easiest thing to stay safe. He shifted to the lupus form. It wasn't ideal but he assumed that the Admiral needed more time to think of options before trying to explain things to the president. And frankly, his canine form was faster. If it came to bolting, he'd at least have a chance. He was beginning to think it wouldn't come to that.

The Admiral looked annoyed with him. As the hatch door opened, he quickly padded over to Louis. Louis grinned at him. "Aren't you a big fluffy puppy?" he said as he patted Felix's head. _We're going to have to talk about boundaries and manners_, Felix thought. He tried to be aloof, but Louis started scratching his ears. Control was hard in lykos and in lupus form, instinctive reactions were next to impossible to stop. Which meant his tail wouldn't stop, and he could see Louis knew it. _Just don't go for the belly_, Felix mentally beamed at Louis. Belly rubbing led to uncontrollable writhing and leg shaking. He wasn't ready to be completely humiliated.

On the other hand, the ear scratching was nice. Very nice. It helped make up for the fact that, with his sense of smell dramatically enhanced, Louis smelled off. Like the soap he had showered with, but with an underlying note of sour dirt. Then again, poor Louis had been tending to him for most of his sleep shift and certainly hadn't taken a break to freshen up.

The hatch door opened and President Roslin stepped in. He whined involuntarily at her scent. She smelled sick, of death impending. He had known she was ill but he realized that the front she had been putting up was just that. It wouldn't be long, and she still looked shocked and haunted by the situation with Earth. She looked at him in surprise and then at Louis.

"That's a really big dog, Lt. Hoshi. Where did it come from?" she asked.

"Lt. Hoshi found the dog," Adama quickly said. "Down in the storage decks." Felix almost whined again. Hiding in plain sight as a dog sounded like the easy answer, but it wasn't realistic. He wasn't a dog, for starters, he was in wolf form and wolves had different instincts. People would wonder where he had disappeared to as well.

If only because they would have to pick up his work, but still.

The President thrust her hand down to his nose. "Is it friendly?" _You should ask that question before your hand is in biting range_, he thought irritably, but he sniffed her hand politely. She had ambrosia on her hands, a spill most likely, and the scent made him wag his tail. _Godsdammit! Now *she's* petting me!_

"You're awfully friendly for being found by yourself in the storage decks." Roslin said easily. Her mood seemed off. Felix wondered about that. He wasn't a big fan of hers, but he respected her often cold analytical decisions, and her ability to lead, even if he wasn't always in love with her decisions. This Laura Roslin seemed somehow softer. Depressed obviously, but also almost forcing herself to function. She made a gesture with her hand. "Can you lie down?"

He did, ignoring Louis's snicker. It was clear from Adama's expression that anything other than agreeable compliance would be bad. He felt Roslin rub the fur on his back. "Now play dead," she said, in a singsong tone, like she was speaking to a child. "Come on, play dead."

Felix rolled onto his back, and put his paws in the air. He glared a little at Adama. _I never did this for anyone but my mom. _Roslin smiled and went right to rubbing his belly. _No no no!_

"Oh look at you, don't you like that? Aren't you just a big boy puppy?" she said cheerfully as she made his hind legs twitch in glee. Then she glanced down his body, nodded knowingly and looked up at Adama. "You know, this sounds so stupid but…. The entire fleet is going crazy, Earth is a horror show, and all I can think is that isn't it great that we've finally got an unneutered dog to put with the three remaining females. Everything else has gone to hell but at least the dogs will have some fun."

Adama looked at her. Then after a long moment, he sat down on his couch and laughed hysterically.

~*~


	4. Chapter 4

-1She hadn't expected that. A smile maybe, a laugh at best. But Bill was laughing, holding his side and almost crying and that scared her. The last few days had been awful, but she thought that Bill at least had been holding up. She certainly hadn't felt up to dealing with life, and if she hadn't simply grabbed a gun and killed herself the way so many people had, it was mostly for Bill's sake.

The joke had been gallows humor at best, not worthy of a belly laugh. "Bill, are you all right?" She stepped away from the big black wolfish dog and went to Bill's side. She eyed Cottle but Cottle was also struggling not to laugh, which made her wonder.

It hadn't been that funny. "Bill?"

He continued to chuckle. "That's…. oh gods that was funny…that's just frakking priceless," Bill sputtered between laughs. Finally he looked at her, his mirth still obvious. "Before you pet that dog again, I have to warn you... it's not what you think."

She looked at him. "Bill, what are you talking about?" Gods please don't be having a breakdown. Everything was bad enough. If Bill didn't hold together, she didn't know what they would do. The harsh reality, whether she took her medicines or not, was that she was going to be dead in a month. Maybe three, if she was lucky. Bill was going to be alone and that scared her. It scared her more than her own death.

"That's Lt. Gaeta," Bill said, pointing to the black dog. He then laughed uproariously. She looked at Cottle, but he was clearly struggling not to laugh as well.

"Ok…" She looked at the dog, which was playfully nosing at scraps of uniform cloth on the floor. Then she looked back at Bill, who was still laughing. "Bill I know the last few days have been incredibly difficult…But I honestly think Lt. Gaeta might be offended at the idea that you named a dog after him."

In fact, Lt. Gaeta, with his dark, hollowed eyed glares, looked like he might be the next member of the crew to eat a gun. She didn't know the man well, but she suspected naming a dog after him would be the thing that guaranteed that Gaeta took someone with him on his exit to the Elysium Fields. The lieutenant had seemed a little fragile.

"No…." Bill seemed to pull it together. He pointed at the dog. "That's not a dog, it's a wolf. More importantly, that wolf is Lt. Gaeta. He's a werewolf."

The dog woofed and wagged its tail.

"Bill, there's no such thing as werewolves. Those are just stories that the temple priests tell…." Stories that they told children, mostly to scare them into attending temple services.

"Lt. Gaeta, get to it!" Bill snapped his fingers. The dog woofed again and whined. Laura could see why Bill thought it was a wolf. It really was It really was wolfish looking, bigger than even a Caprican Shepherd Dog, and the way its ears were positioned was different than a dog. The fur was black with gray mottling that she knew from the nature shows was a form of protective coloring, with gray tipped ears and just a little white on its paws and chest. Ironically, it had the same almost pretty look Felix Gaeta had. Except that it had all its limbs. Which was an unkind thought, she told herself as she looked at the dog. The poor man had enough problems without Bill taunting him with crazy talk about werewolves.

Bill snapped his fingers again. " Come on, do it! That's an order dammit!" His good cheer seemed to dissolve in an instant.

And suddenly the wolf seemed to grow. She watched in shocked awe as it seemed to morph into a huge man beast, like in the legends. A Child of Pan, her recently dormant religious side gibbered, sent to punish them for their transgressions. It crouched and seemed to growl under its breath. Its yellow eyes glared at her and then at Bill. "You know, sir. This isn't as... easy as it may appear to look."

It was low, and rumbling, much like she had always imagined a werewolf to sound, except that it also sounded like Felix Gaeta. "Oh gods," she said, under her breath. "You're Lt. Gaeta..."

"Yes, Madame President," the werewolf said. It seemed to look embarrassed.

"You're a Child of Pan." A huge Child of Pan, even crouching it seemed to tower over them. It nodded, flicking its ears.

"Yes, sir," Gaeta said.

"Why are you here?" There had to be a reason, she thought suddenly. It knew, it knew she had burned the scroll, that she had lost faith. Or perhaps it was there to judge her for her faith, the visions that she had only partly believed and had capitalized on to haul the fleet to nowhere but disappointment. They were the judges and executioners of the gods, the policemen of humanity. She stood up, stepping in front of Bill. Her fate she could accept, but she would be damned if it took Bill. "Are you here to punish me? Destroy me to show that the gods weren't speaking to me? That its my fault that Earth is a ruin?"

Gaeta gaped at her, whining slightly. "No…. Those are… those are just stories, Madame President… We don't even really believe in the same gods…. It's different…. We believe we're supposed to… keep an eye on things. Like caretakers. We don't act for the gods… Most of those stories are just that…."

It was an odd position to be in, looking up at a massive werewolf who seemed chagrinned at her reaction to him. And his soft, rumbling explanation answered nothing. She drew herself up firmly. "Why are you here, now?"

Because she had a feeling Felix Gaeta hadn't just turned into a werewolf.

"Um… isn't it obvious?" Gaeta asked. He gestured down his furry chest.

Cottle guffawed, as did Bill. Even the third man, Lt. Hosher or Hosteen, she wasn't sure, grinned. "Allow me," Cottle said easily. "How many legs does the big furry thing have?"

"Two…" She nodded, making the connection instantly. "You changed… when the moon was full?"

"The half moon of Aquaria, to be specific," Gaeta said. "You… change during the moon cycle you were born in…."

"Of course," Laura said. "That's perfectly reasonable. And your leg grew back?" Already she could see the problems. She had to assume that Gaeta had been dealing with the fur sprouting for longer than she cared to know. It was a secret. She had to assume some of the stories were real, the Children of Pan were supposedly a secret order. If it was just a matter of not telling people, Gaeta would have kept his mouth shut.

And he had no idea his leg would come back. She had seen the devastation on the man's face, heard the despair in his voice. "You weren't expecting that."

"No… its… rare." Gaeta said.

"And I assume we've ruled out hiding this miracle?" she asked.

"Well, Lt. Gaeta growled when we suggested cutting off his leg,"Cottle said easily, "and sure, having him play stud to Junie, Fluffy, and Riley would amuse the hell out of me, but ultimately… it might piss off the others."

"And I can't afford to lose my tactical officer to the petting zoo." Bill added. He looked at her. "I apparently have twelve members of the crew, and children, who have Lt. Gaeta's problem. I don't plan on executing any of them since this is apparently a genetic disorder."

"The press won't like that," she said. She wasn't so certain she liked it either.

"I don't really care," Bill said. "We'll figure something out. Dr. Cottle, Lt. Hoshi, you two need to return to duty. Lt. Gaeta, we'll need you to stay here."

"I'm sorry," Laura said as Cottle and Hoshi filed out, "Mr. Gaeta… do you… need to be like this?" She didn't want to tick the wolfman in the roof off but he was making her nervous. And her eyes were already watering from the damn fur.

"Oh, right." In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the wolfman devolved into Lt. Gaeta. Still hollow eyed and exhausted looking. Surprisingly clean shaven and… very naked. "Does… anyone have pants? Mine ripped."

As Bill laughed again, Laura merely walked over to the couch and found Bill's robe. "Cover yourself, Mr. Gaeta."

Because she didn't need to see what she had only moments ago been playing with.

~*~


End file.
